'The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland' (Ritchie,
1920) provides an interesting report on the reintroduction
of Red Squirrels following their dramatic decline during the
18th century. Whether or not Red Squirrels became extinct
in Scotland is not known for sure.
Ritchie acknowledges this fact, saying:
"The demolition of the forest … banished [the Red Squirrel] entirely from the Lowlands, and gradually drove
its diminishing numbers from one stronghold to another, till,
by the end of the 18th century, it seems to have everywhere
disappeared, except, perhaps, in the recesses of wilder and
more remote forests, such as the native woods of Rothiemurchus
at the base of the Inverness-shire Grampians."
The following text summarises a detailed account of their
reintroduction, from the same source.
Beaufort Castle, near Beauly, was one of the main centres
of reintroduction for Red Squirrels in Scotland, following
stocking by Lady Lovat in 1844. In four years they had spread
northwards until they were common in Inverness-shire, and
by 1858 they were present in Ross and Cromarty, having reached
Kilmuir Castle and Tarbat House north of the Cromarty Firth.
They were recorded as appearing in Sutherland in 1859, and
were common in the east of the region by the 1870s. Some 25
years before the founding of the Highland Squirrel Club, the
potential of the Red Squirrel as a pest was already well known.
Between 1873 and 1880, 942 were killed at Dunrobin, although
numbers seemed to have recovered well by the 1920s. The open
hill ground separating Sutherland and southern Caithness appears
to have stopped their spread northwards, and in 1887 there
were no records of Squirrels in Caithness, although by 1920
they were described as common in the Berriedale district.
Movement from east to west appears to have progressed via
Strath Oykell, Glen Einig and Glen Achallt, and by 1893 they
had appeared at Loch Broom.
The spread of introduced Reds south and eastwards from Beaufort
was no less impressive. In 1848 they had reached the shores
of Loch Ness, and from there went on to Glen Urquhart, Fort
Augustus (1851), Glen Garry (1855) and Glen Moriston (common
by 1864). From there they moved into Argyllshire, reaching
Ardnamurchan by 1896. Eastwards from Beauly, they made easy
progress along the coast. Inverness 'was surrounded' by 1851,
followed by Cawdor (1855) and the Glen of Rothes by 1860.
From this point, 'in company with wanderers from the forests
of Speyside', they continued on into Aberdeenshire.
Ritchie goes on to suggest that the true native Red Squirrels
were not idle during this time of expansion, and no doubt
responded in a similar way to the expanding woodland resource.
Dr Harvie-Brown (Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society
of Edinburgh, 1880 and 1881) believed that a 'resuscitation'
of native Red Squirrels took place in the Forest of Rothiemurchus,
with Squirrels seen in 1844 in Upper Strathspey and in 1856
in Grantown-on-Spey, after which they are likely to have met
those spreading eastwards from the Beaufort Estate. In this
way, Ritchie concludes, introduced Red Squirrels 'replaced
in Scotland a race of Squirrels it had all but lost'.
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